1.
Property law
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Property law is the area of law that governs the various forms of ownership and tenancy in real property and in personal property, within the common law legal system. In the civil law system, there is a division between movable and immovable property, movable property roughly corresponds to personal property, while immovable property corresponds to real estate or real property, and the associated rights, and obligations thereon. The concept, idea or philosophy of property underlies all property law, in some jurisdictions, historically all property was owned by the monarch and it devolved through feudal land tenure or other feudal systems of loyalty and fealty. The word property, in usage, refers to an object owned by a person — a car, a book, or a cellphone —. In law, the concept acquires a more nuanced rendering, most broadly and concisely, property in the legal sense refers to the rights of people in or over certain objects or things. James Wilson, U. S. Supreme Court Justice and professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1790 and 1791, undertook a survey of the philosophical grounds of American property law. He proceeds from two premises, “Every crime includes an injury, every injury includes a violation of a right. ”The government’s role in protecting property depends upon an idea of right, Wilson traces the history of property in his essay On the History of Property. In his lecture, Of the natural rights of individuals, he articulates related contemporary theory. While he doubts this is so, he states, “In his unrelated state, man has a natural right to his property, to his character, to liberty. Or was it, by an establishment, to acquire a new security for the possession or the recovery of those rights…. ”He indicates a preference for the latter. In the opening sentence of On the History of Property, he quite clearly, “Property is the right or lawful power, which a person has to a thing. ”He then divides the right into three degrees, possession, the lowest, possession and use, and, possession, use. Further, he states, “Man is intended for action, useful and skilful industry is the soul of an active life. But industry should have her just reward and that reward is property, for of useful and active industry, property is the natural result. ”From this simple reasoning he is able to present the conclusion that exclusive, as opposed to communal property, is to be preferred. Wilson does, however, give a survey of communal property arrangements in history, not only in colonial Virginia, non-legally recognized or documented property rights are known as informal property rights. These informal property rights are non-codified or documented, but recognized among local residents to varying degrees, different parties may claim a competing interest in the same property by mistake or by fraud. For example, the party creating or transferring an interest may have a valid title, a court resolves the dispute by adjudicating the priorities of the interests. To transfer property is to such an act. Property rights are rights over things enforceable against all other persons, by contrast, contractual rights are rights enforceable against particular persons
2.
Common law
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Common law is the body of law developed from the thirteenth century to the present day, as case law or precedent, by judges, courts, and tribunals. In cases where the parties disagree on what the law is, if a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is usually bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision. Resolution of the issue in one case becomes precedent that binds future courts, stare decisis, the principle that cases should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that similar facts will yield similar results, lies at the heart of all common law systems. A common law system is a system that gives great precedential weight to common law. Common law systems originated during the Middle Ages in England, today, one third of the worlds population live in common law jurisdictions or in systems mixed with civil law. The term common law has many connotations, the first three set out here are the most-common usages within the legal community. Other connotations from past centuries are seen, and are sometimes heard in everyday speech. Blacks Law Dictionary, 10th Ed. gives as definition 1,1, the body of law derived from judicial decisions, rather than from statutes or constitutions, CASELAW, STATUTORY LAW. In this connotation, common law distinguishes the authority that promulgated a law. e, examples include most criminal law and procedural law before the 20th century, and even today, most contract law and the law of torts. Interstitial common law decisions that analyze, interpret and determine the fine boundaries. Publication of decisions, and indexing, is essential to the development of common law, while all decisions in common law jurisdictions are precedent, some become leading cases or landmark decisions that are cited especially often. Blacks 10th Ed. definition 2, differentiates common law jurisdictions, by contrast, in civil law jurisdictions, courts lack authority to act if there is no statute. Judicial precedent is given less weight, which means that a judge deciding a given case has more freedom to interpret the text of a statute independently. For example, the Napoleonic code expressly forbade French judges to pronounce general principles of law. As a rule of thumb, common law systems trace their history to England, blacks 10th Ed. definition 4, differentiates common law from equity. This split propagated to many of the colonies, including the United States, for most purposes, most jurisdictions, including the U. S. federal system and most states, have merged the two courts. Additionally, even before the courts were merged, most courts were permitted to apply both law and equity, though under potentially different procedural law. In the United States, determining whether the Seventh Amendments right to a jury trial applies or whether the issue will be decided by a judge, the standard of review and degree of deference given by an appellate tribunal to the decision of the lower tribunal under review
3.
Real property
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The term is historic, arising from the now-discontinued form of action, which distinguished between real property disputes and personal property disputes. Personal property was, and continues to be, all property that is not real property, in countries with personal ownership of real property, civil law protects the status of real property in real-estate markets, where estate agents work in the market of buying and selling real estate. Scottish civil law calls real property heritable property, and in French-based law, the word real derives from Latin res, which was used in Middle English to mean relating to things, especially real property. In common law, real property was property that could be protected by some form of action, in contrast to personal property. As a result of this formalist approach, some things the common law deems to be land would not be classified as such by most modern legal systems, for example an advowson was real property. By contrast the rights of a leaseholder originate in personal actions, the law now broadly distinguishes between real property and personal property. The conceptual difference was between immovable property, which would transfer title along with the land, and movable property, bethell contains much historical information on the historical evolution of real property and property rights. To be of any value a claim to any property must be accompanied by a verifiable, in many cases, a description refers to one or more lots on a plat, a map of property boundaries kept in public records. The law recognizes different sorts of interests, called estates, in real property, the type of estate is generally determined by the language of the deed, lease, bill of sale, will, land grant, etc. through which the estate was acquired. Estates are distinguished by the property rights that vest in each. A party enjoying an estate is called a tenant, some important types of estates in land include, Fee simple, An estate of indefinite duration, that can be freely transferred. The most common and perhaps most absolute type of estate, under which the tenant enjoys the greatest discretion over the disposal of the property, conditional Fee simple, An estate lasting forever as long as one or more conditions stipulated by the deeds grantor does not occur. If such a condition does occur, the property reverts to the grantor, or a remainder interest is passed on to a third party, Fee tail, An estate which, upon the death of the tenant, is transferred to his or her heirs. Life estate, An estate lasting for the life of the grantee. If a life estate can be sold, a sale does not change its duration, a life estate pur autre vie is held by one person for the natural life of another person. Such an estate may arise if the life tenant sells her life estate to another. For example, an apartment-dweller with a one-year lease has an estate in her apartment. Lessees typically agree to pay a rent to the lessor
4.
Adverse possession
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Adverse possession is a situation when a person who does not have legal title to land occupies the land without the permission of the legal owner. The permission of the owner may be reflected in the entering into a lease or granting a licence, the laws of most jurisdictions do not permit claims of adverse possession against public land. Squatting is a form of adverse possession, the adverse possessor is usually required to prove non-permissive use which is actual, open and notorious, exclusive, adverse, and continuous for the statutory period. If a claim to title by adverse possession is successful, title is acquired without compensation, the circumstances in which adverse possession arises determine the type of title acquired by the disseisor, which may be fee simple title, mineral rights, or another interest in real property. Adverse possessions origins are based both in actions and in common law precepts, so the details concerning adverse possession actions vary by jurisdiction. The required period of uninterrupted possession is governed by the statute of limitations, other elements of adverse possession are judicial constructs. The law recognized a cutoff date going back into the past, there was no requirement for a defendant to show any form of adverse possession. As time went on, the date was moved by statute—first to the reign of Henry II, no further changes were made of this kind. By the reign of Henry VIII the fact there had been no changes to the cutoff date had become very inconvenient. A new approach was taken whereby the person claiming possession had to show possession of the land for a continuous period, later statutes have shortened the limitation period in most common law jurisdictions. Adverse possession is one of the most contentious methods of acquiring property, historically, if someone possessed land for long enough, it was thought that this in itself justified acquisition of a good title. A more modern function has been that land which is disused or neglected by an owner may be converted into anothers property if continual use is made, squatting in England has been a way for land to be efficiently utilised, particularly in periods of economic decline. Before the Land Registration Act 2002, if a person had possessed land for 12 years, then at common law, the previous owners right of action to eject the adverse possessor would expire. The common legal justification was that under the Limitation Act 1623, just like a cause of action in contract or tort had to be used within a time limit and this promoted the finality of litigation and the certainty of claims. Time would start running when someone took exclusive possession of land, or part of it, provided the common law requirements of possession that was adverse were fulfilled, after 12 years, the owner would cease to be able to assert a claim. Different rules are in place for the periods of adverse possession in unregistered land. However, in the Land Registration Act 2002 adverse possession of registered land became much harder, the rules for unregistered land remained as before. But under the LRA2002 Schedule 6, paragraphs 1 to 5, the registrar then contacts the registered title holder and notifies him of the application
5.
Deed
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For the British cargo ship, see SS Deed. For the reality series, see The Deed. A deed is any instrument in writing which passes, affirms or confirms an interest, right, or property and that is signed, attested, delivered. It is commonly associated with transferring title to property, the deed has a greater presumption of validity and is less rebuttable than an instrument signed by the party to the deed. A deed can be unilateral or bilateral, deeds include conveyances, commissions, licenses, patents, diplomas, and conditionally powers of attorney if executed as deeds. The deed is the descendant of the medieval charter. The traditional phrase signed, sealed and delivered refers to the practice of seals, however, agreements under seal are also called contracts by deed or specialty, in the United States, a specialty is enforceable without consideration. Specialties, as a form of contract, are bilateral and can therefore be distinguished from covenants, which, being also under seal, are unilateral promises. At common law, to be valid and enforceable, a deed must fulfill several requirements, It must state on its face that it is a deed and it must indicate that the instrument itself conveys some privilege or thing to someone. The grantor must have the ability to grant the thing or privilege. It must be executed by the grantor in presence of the number of witnesses. In some jurisdictions, a seal must be affixed to it, originally, affixing seals made persons parties to the deed and signatures optional, but seals are now outdated in most jurisdictions, so the signatures of the grantor and witnesses are primary. It must be delivered to and accepted by the grantee, conditions attached to the acceptance of a deed are known as covenants. A deed indented or indenture is one executed in two or more according to the number of parties, which were formerly separated by cutting in a curved or indented line known as the chirograph. A deed poll is one executed in one part, by one party, having the edge polled or cut even, in the transfer of real estate, a deed conveys ownership from the old owner to the new owner, and can include various warranties. The precise name and nature of these differ by jurisdiction. Often, however, the differences between them is the degree to which the grantor warrants the title. The grantor may give a general warranty of title against any claims, the latter type of deed is usually known as a special warranty deed
6.
Discovery doctrine
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The Discovery doctrine is a concept of public international law expounded by the United States Supreme Court in a series of decisions, most notably Johnson v. MIntosh in 1823. Chief Justice John Marshall justified the way in which colonial powers laid claim to lands belonging to foreign nations during the Age of Discovery. Under it, title to lands lay with the government whose subjects travelled to, the doctrine has been primarily used to support decisions invalidating or ignoring aboriginal possession of land in favor of colonial or post-colonial governments. The 1823 case was the result of lawsuits where land speculators worked together to make claims to achieve a desired result. John Marshall explained the Courts reasoning, the decision has been the subject of a number of law review articles and has come under increased scrutiny by modern legal theorists. The Doctrine of Discovery was promulgated by European monarchies in order to legitimize the colonization of lands outside of Europe, between the mid-fifteenth century and the mid-twentieth century, this idea allowed European entities to seize lands inhabited by indigenous peoples under the guise of discovery. In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas declared that only non-Christian lands could be colonized under the Discovery Doctrine, in 1792, U. S. Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson declared that the Doctrine of the Discovery would extend from Europe to the infant U. S. government. The Doctrine and its legacy continue to influence American imperialism and treatment of indigenous peoples, the plaintiff Johnson had inherited land, originally purchased from the Piankeshaw tribes. Defendant McIntosh claimed the land, having purchased it under a grant from the United States. It appears that in 1775 members of the Piankeshaw tribe sold land in the Indiana Territory to Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia. In 1805 the Piankeshaw conveyed much of the land to William Henry Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory. In reviewing whether the courts of the United States should recognize land titles obtained from Native Americans prior to American independence, chief Justice John Marshall had large real estate holdings that would have been affected if the case were decided in favor of Johnson. Rather than remove himself from the case, however, the chief justice wrote the decision for a unanimous USA Supreme Court. Marshall found that ownership of land comes into existence by virtue of discovery of that land, legally, the United States was the true owner of the land because it inherited that ownership from Britain, the original discoverer. Marshall noted, On the discovery of this continent, the great nations of Europe. The history of America, from its discovery to the present day, proves, we think and her discussions respecting boundary, with France, with Great Britain, and with the United States, all show that she placed it on the rights given by discovery. Portugal sustained her claim to the Brazils by the same title, Marshall pointed to the exploration charters given to John Cabot as proof that the British had operated under the doctrine. The tribes which occupied the land were, at the moment of discovery, no longer completely sovereign and had no property rights, further, only the discovering nation or its successor could take possession of the land from the natives by conquest or purchase
7.
Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property
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Property can be considered lost, mislaid or abandoned depending on the circumstances under which it is found by the next party who obtains its possession. There is an old saying that possession is nine-tenths of the law and this means that in most cases, the possessor of a piece of property is its rightful owner without evidence to the contrary. More colloquially, this may be called finders, keepers, the contradiction to this principle is theft by finding, which may occur if conversion occurs after finding someone elses property. The rights of a finder of such property are determined in part by the status in which it is found, because these classifications have developed under the common law of England, they turn on nuanced distinctions. Property is generally deemed to have been lost if it is found in a place where the true owner likely did not intend to set it down, and where it is not likely to be found by the true owner. At common law, the finder of a lost item could claim the right to possess the item against any person except the true owner or any previous possessors. The underlying policy goals to these distinctions are to see that the property is returned to its original owner. In Britain, many businesses have a dedicated Lost Property Office. Many exceptions may be applied at common law to the rule that the first finder of lost property has a claim of right over any other person except the previous owner. For example, a claim to lost property which he finds while trespassing is generally inferior to the claim of the respective landowner. However, this is not always the case, as a tenant who finds lost property within the leased area of his leasehold may have a superior claim over that of his landlord. Since animals are mobile and are capable of becoming lost on their own. A valuable animal that becomes lost usually does so by leaving its owners real property and arriving on another property owners land, estrays are normally confined to domesticated animals, like livestock, and not wild animals. Since common pets are not considered valuable animals, dogs and cats are never considered estrays, if the estray is branded, the owner can often be identified immediately. Fees for impounding the estray will often accumulate which the property owner will be responsible for paying, the status of a stray domestic animal is highly dependent on local jurisdictions. Given the significant number of dogs and cats, the finder of a lost dog or cat may have little or no restrictions to claiming the animal as his own property. Like animals, fugitive slaves in the United States were a type of property that was capable of relocating to other places, slave owners depended on others to identify and return their property, some slaves would be branded if a slave was known to run away. These laws, now superseded by Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of 1865, were demanded by the Southern States of the U. S. but were opposed in most Northern states
8.
Treasure trove
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The legal definition of what constitutes treasure trove and its treatment under law vary considerably from country to country, and from era to era. The term is often used metaphorically. Collections of articles published as a book are often titled Treasure Trove and this was especially fashionable for titles of childrens books in the early- and mid-20th century. Treasure trove, sometimes rendered treasure-trove, literally means treasure that has been found, the English term treasure trove was derived from tresor trové, the Anglo-French equivalent of the Latin legal term thesaurus inventus. The term wealth deposit has been proposed as a more accurate alternative, the term treasure trove is often used metaphorically to mean a valuable find, and hence a source of treasure, or a reserve or repository of valuable things. Trove is often used alone to refer to the concept, the word having been reanalysed as a noun via folk etymology from an original Anglo-French adjective trové, phrases of this form are often used either with the etymologically correct plural form or as fully rederived plural forms. In the case of treasure trove, the plural form is almost always treasure troves. In Roman law treasure trove was called thesaurus, and defined by the Roman jurist Paulus as vetus quædam depositio pecuniæ, cujus non extat memoria, ut jam dominum non habeat. R. W. Lee, in his book The Elements of Roman Law, commented that this definition was not quite satisfactory as treasure was not confined to money, nor was there any abandonment of ownership. Under the emperors, if treasure was found on a persons own land or on sacred or religious land, an interpretation of Roman law regarding treasure troves makes an appearance in the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. The Parable of the Hidden Treasure is told by Jesus of Nazareth to the crowds surrounding him, in the parable, the treasure trove is hidden in a field, which is open country and anyone could conceivably discover something hidden in that location. Its also assumed that the present owner has no knowledge or memory of the treasure, the finder of the treasure kept the trove secret until he could raise capital to purchase the land holding the trove. Selling all he had, the finder purchased the land and then unearthed the trove and, as the finder and owner, he was legally entitled to the entire trove. Jesus compared the kingdom of Heaven to the trove, being of value than all a persons earthly wealth. It has been said that the concept of treasure trove in English law dates back to the time of Edward the Confessor. If the person who had hidden the treasure was known or discovered later, to be treasure trove, an object had to be substantially – that is, more than 50% – gold or silver. Treasure trove had to be hidden with animus revocandi, that is, the Crown could grant its right to treasure trove to any person in the form of a franchise. It was the duty of the finder, and indeed of anyone who had acquired knowledge of the matter, concealing a find was a misdemeanour punishable with fine and imprisonment
9.
Condominium
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A condominium, usually shortened to condo, is a type of real estate divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas jointly owned. Unlike apartments, which are leased by their tenants, condominium units are owned outright, the common areas, amenities and utilities are managed collectively by the owners through their association, such as a homeowner association. Scholars have traced the earliest known use of the form of tenure to a document from first century Babylon. The word condominium originated in Latin, the term condominium is used throughout the United States and in most Canadian provinces, where such a property is also colloquially known as a condo. Italy uses condominio, which is simply the modern Italian form of condominium, both condo and condominium are used colloquially in the Canadian Province of Quebec, where the official term is copropriété divise or co-property devise. In France, however, the term is simply copropriété, co-property, spanish-speaking nations and regions often use the term propiedad horizontal, literally meaning horizontal property but abstractly meaning that all owners of the property have equal interest. The word condominio is also used, Condominium is a Latin word formed by adding the prefix con- to the word dominium. Its meaning is therefore shared property, condominia originally referred to territories over which two or more sovereign powers shared joint dominion. This technique was used to settle border disputes when multiple claimants could not agree on how to partition the disputed territory. For example, from 1818 to 1846, Oregon was a condominium over which both the United States and Great Britain shared joint sovereignty, mainly in the context of the United States The difference between an apartment complex and condominium is purely legal. There is no way to differentiate a condominium from an apartment simply by looking at or visiting the building, what defines a condominium is the form of ownership. A building developed as a condominium could actually be built at another location as an apartment building, as a practical matter, builders tend to build condominiums to higher quality standards than apartment complexes because of the differences between the rental and sale markets. Technically, a condominium is a collection of home units. Individual home ownership within a condominium is construed as ownership of only the air space confining the boundaries of the home, the boundaries of that space are specified by a legal document known as a Declaration, filed on record with the local governing authority. Typically, these boundaries will include the surrounding a condo. Anything outside this boundary is held in an ownership interest by a corporation established at the time of the condominiums creation. The corporation holds this property in trust on behalf of the homeowners as a group—it may not have ownership itself, Condominiums have conditions, covenants, and restrictions, and often additional rules that govern how the individual unit owners are to share the space. It is also possible for a condominium to consist of single-family dwellings and these structures are preferred by some planned neighborhoods and gated communities
10.
Real estate
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Also, the business of real estate, the profession of buying, selling, or renting land, buildings or housing. It is a term used in jurisdictions whose legal system is derived from English common law, such as India, the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, Pakistan, Australia. Residential real estate may contain either a family or multifamily structure. Residences can be classified by, if, and how they are connected to neighbouring residences, different types of housing tenure can be used for the same physical type. For example, connected residents might be owned by an entity and leased out. Major categories in North America and Europe Attached / multi-unit dwellings Apartment or Flat – An individual unit in a multi-unit building, the boundaries of the apartment are generally defined by a perimeter of locked or lockable doors. Often seen in apartment buildings. Multi-family house – Often seen in multi-story detached buildings, where each floor is an apartment or unit. Terraced house – A number of single or multi-unit buildings in a row with shared walls. Condominium – Building or complex, similar to apartments, owned by individuals, common grounds and common areas within the complex are owned and shared jointly. There are townhouse or rowhouse style condominiums as well, semi-detached dwellings Duplex – Two units with one shared wall. Single-family detached house Portable dwellings Mobile homes – Potentially a full-time residence which can be movable on wheels, houseboats – A floating home Tents – Usually very temporary, with roof and walls consisting only of fabric-like material. The size of an apartment or house can be described in square feet or meters, in the United States, this includes the area of living space, excluding the garage and other non-living spaces. It can be described roughly by the number of rooms. A studio apartment has a bedroom with no living room. A one-bedroom apartment has a living or dining room separate from the bedroom, Two bedroom, three bedroom, and larger units are common. Major categories in India and the Asian Subcontinent Co-operative Housing Societies Condominiums Chawls Villas Havelis The size is measured in Gaz, Quila, Marla, Beegha, and acre. See List of house types for a listing of housing types and layouts, real estate trends for shifts in the market
11.
Torrens title
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Torrens title is a system of land registration, in which a register of land holdings maintained by the state guarantees an indefeasible title to those included in the register. Land ownership is transferred through registration of title instead of using deeds and its main purpose is to simplify land transactions and to certify to the ownership of an absolute title to realty. It has become pervasive around the countries strongly influenced by Britain and it is named after Sir Robert Richard Torrens, GCMG, who was the third Premier of South Australia. The Torrens title system operates on the principle of title by registration rather than registration of title, the system does away with the need for proving a chain of title. The State guarantees title and is supported by a compensation scheme for those who lose their title due to private fraud or error in the States operation. In most jurisdictions, there will be parcels of land which are still unregistered, the Torrens system works on three principles, Mirror principle – the register reflects accurately and completely the current facts about title to each registered lot. This means that each dealing affecting a lot must be entered on the register, curtain principle – one does not need to go behind the Certificate of Title as it contains all the information about the title. This means that ownership need not be proved by long complicated documents that are kept by the owner, all of the necessary information regarding ownership is on the Certificate of Title. Indemnity principle – provides for compensation of loss caused by fraud or by errors made by the Registrar of Titles. At common law, land owners needed to prove their ownership of a piece of land back to the earliest grant of land by the Crown to its first owner. The documents relating to transactions with the land were known as the title deeds or the chain of title. This event could have occurred hundreds of years prior and could have intervened by dozens of changes in the lands ownership. A persons ownership over land could also be challenged, potentially causing great expense to land owners. The latter could only the title retained by the vendor—in short. However, the case was decided in favor of P2. The courts of equity could not bring themselves to decide against a totally innocent purchaser, the common-law position has been changed in minor respects by legislation designed to minimize the searches that should be undertaken by a prospective purchaser. In some jurisdictions, a limitation has been placed on the period of commencement of title a purchaser may require, the effect of registration under the deeds registration system was to give the instrument registered priority over all instruments that are either unregistered or not registered until later. The basic difference between the deeds registration and Torrens systems is that the former involves registration of instruments while the latter involves registration of title
12.
Escheat
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Escheat /ᵻsˈtʃiːt/ is a common law doctrine that transfers the property of a person who died without heirs to the crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in limbo without recognized ownership and it originally applied to a number of situations where a legal interest in land was destroyed by operation of law, so that the ownership of the land reverted to the immediately superior feudal lord. The term escheat derives ultimately from the Latin ex-cadere, to fall-out, the sense is of a feudal estate in land falling-out of the possession by a family into possession by the overlord. In feudal England, escheat referred to the situation where the tenant of a fee died without an heir or committed a felony, from the time of Henry III, the monarchy took particular interest in escheat as a source of revenue. At the Norman Conquest of England all the land of England was claimed as the possession of William the Conqueror under allodial title. The monarch thus became the owner of all the land in the kingdom. He then granted it out to his followers, who thereby became tenants-in-chief. Such tenures, even the highest one of feudal barony, never conferred ownership of land but merely ownership of rights over it, such persons are therefore correctly termed land-holders or tenants, not owners. If held freely, that is to say by freehold, such holdings were heritable by the legal heir. On the payment of a premium termed feudal relief to the treasury, logically therefore it was in the occupation of the crown alone, that is to say in the royal demesne. This was the operation of an escheat, a failure of heirs. Since disavowal of a bond was considered a felony, lords could escheat land from those who refused to be true to their feudal services. On the other hand, there were tenants who were sluggish in performing their duties, remedies in the courts against this sort of thing, even in Bractons day, were available, but were considered laborious and frequently ineffectual in compelling the desired performance. The commonest mechanism would be distraint, also called distress, the lord would seize some chattel and this practice had been dealt with in the 1267 Statute of Marlborough. Even so, it remained the most common method applied by the lords at the time of Quia Emptores. Thus, under English common law, there were two ways an escheat could happen, A persons property escheated if he was convicted of a felony. If the person was executed for the crime, his heirs were attainted, if a person had no heir to receive their property under a will or under the laws of intestacy, then any property he owned at death would escheat. This rule has been replaced in most common-law jurisdictions by bona vacantia or a similar concept, from the 12th century onward, the Crown appointed escheators to manage escheats and report to the Exchequer, with one escheator per county established by the middle of the 14th century
13.
Rule against perpetuities
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The common law rule against perpetuities forbids instruments from tying up property for too long a time beyond the lives of people living at the time the instrument was written. For instance, willing property to ones great-great-great-great grandchildren would normally violate the rule against perpetuities, the law is applied differently or not at all, and even contravened, in various jurisdictions and circumstances. The rule is stated as follows, “No interest is good unless it must vest, if at all, not later than twenty-one years after the death of some life in being at the creation of the interest. ”For the purposes of the rule. Although most discussions and analysis relating to the rule revolve around wills and trusts, when a part of a grant or will violates the rule, only that portion of the grant or devise is removed. All other parts that do not violate the rule are still valid, the perpetuities period under the common law rule is not a fixed term of years. By its terms, the limits the period to at the latest 21 years after the death of the last identifiable individual living at the time the interest was created. This measuring life need not have been a purchaser or taker in the conveyance or devise, any one of the measuring lives that vindicates the conveyance by resolving all contingencies will be called a validating life. This is because this measuring life has made the conveyance, the rule against perpetuities at common law has been amended by various statutes. Therefore, in the United States it has been abolished by statute in Alaska, Idaho, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, virgin Islands, and is currently under consideration in New York. Other jurisdictions apply the wait and see or cy-près doctrine that validates contingent remainders and these doctrines have also been codified in the United Kingdom by the 1964 statute. The rule has its origin in the Duke of Norfolks Case of 1682, the estate plan also included provisions for shifting the titles many generations later if certain conditions should occur. When his second son, Henry, succeeded to one title, he did not want to pass the other to his younger brother, Charles sued to enforce his interest, and the court held that such a shifting condition could not exist indefinitely. The rule against perpetuities is closely related to another doctrine in the law of property. Both stem from a principle or reference in the common law disapproving of restraints on property rights. However, while a violation of the rule against perpetuities is also a violation of the rule against unreasonable restraints on alienation, the reciprocal is not true. As one has stated, The rule against perpetuities is an ancient, for this reason, another court has declared that the provisions of the rule are predicated upon public policy and thus constitute non-waivable, legal prohibitions. At common law, the length of time was fixed at 21 years after the death of a person alive at the time the interest was created. This is often expressed as lives in being plus twenty-one years, under the common-law rule, one does not look to whether an interest actually will vest more than 21 years after the lives in being
14.
Easement
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An easement is a non-possessory right to use and/or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it. It is best typified in the right of way which one landowner, A, may enjoy over the land of another and it is similar to real covenants and equitable servitudes, in the United States, the Restatement of Property takes steps to merge these concepts as servitudes. An easement is considered as a property right in itself at common law and is treated as a type of property in most jurisdictions. The rights of an easement holder vary substantially among jurisdictions, for example, an affirmative easement might allow land owner A to drive their cattle over the land of B. A has an easement from B. Conversely, a negative easement might restrict A from blocking Bs mountain view by putting up a wall of trees, a has a negative easement from B. As defined by Evershed MR in Re Ellenborough Park Ch 131, the party gaining the benefit of the easement is the dominant estate, while the party granting the benefit or suffering the burden is the servient estate. For example, the owner of parcel A holds an easement to use a driveway on parcel B to gain access to As house. Here, parcel A is the dominant estate, receiving the benefit, a private easement is held by private individuals or entities. A public easement grants an easement for a use, for example. Conversely, an easement in gross benefits an individual or a legal entity, the easement can be for a personal use or a commercial use. Historically, an easement in gross was neither assignable nor inheritable and they are divisible, but must be exclusive and all holders of the easement must agree to divide. If subdivided, each subdivided parcel enjoys the easement, a floating easement exists when there is no fixed location, route, method, or limit to the right of way. For example, a right of way may cross a field, without any visible path, a floating easement may be public or private, appurtenant or in gross. One case defined it as, easement defined in general terms, furthermore, a floating easement becomes fixed after construction and cannot thereafter be changed. Some legal scholars classify structural encroachments as a type of easement, similar to a license or profit-à-prendre, Wayleave is normally a temporary arrangement and does not automatically transfer to a new owner or occupier. More generally, an agreement can be used for any service provider. In the United States, an easement in gross is used for such needs, easements are most often created by express language in binding documents
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